X. Of Faith of The Fathers

My church, Farish Street Baptist Church, ca. 1930


The tenth essay in The Souls of Black Folk is "Of Faith of the Father".  The poem is from "Dim Face of Beauty" by Fiona MacLeod  and the musical notation is from the Negro spiritual, "Steal Away"
Check out link of Mahalia Jackson and Nat King Cole singing "Steal Away":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-O5hz5KnSdc

This essay is a reworking of an article Du Bois wrote for The New World: A Quarterly Review of Religious Ethics and Theology (December 1900): 614-25 entitled "The Religion of the American Negro".

In this tenth essay Du Bois described the religion of the African American before emancipation.  Three things stood out for Du Bois in describing African American religion:
1. The Preacher
2. Music
3. Frenzy or Shouting

Du Bois plainly displays his New England high church bias when he describes African and African American religion.  Du Bois the stuffy, conservative, snob is front and center in this article.  He refers to West African religion as heathenism and probably only approves slightly more of rural Southern African American  and Northern storefront religious practices. 

Du Bois claims:
The Negro Churcb of to-day[1900] is the social centre of Negro life in the United States, and the most characteristic expression of African character.

In 2010, can the same claim be made about the African American church?